Posts by Jason Bloomberg

Re: We're screwed!

I remember, decades ago, when we had people picking up litter, road sweeping machines regularly cleaning street gutters. We also had public toilets so people didn't have to piss up alleyways, recreational spaces and community sports fields.

I am not entirely convinced we have become worse as a society in carelessly discarding our crap, just worse at dealing with human nature. Usually because of 'cost', and an attempt to save money by making societal problems a matter of individual responsibility, when people don't feel that it is or should be their responsibility.

Re: Questionable Explanation

Speculation: the AI thinks the arm failed to pick up white queen and is re-attempting the move.

It looked like that to me. I was wondering why, if it were doing that, it didn't keep doing that, lift the piece, finger and boy, and try and dump all in the tupperware box.

A better quality video shows the arm had picked up a Bishop and was placing that where the boy had moved his Castle to. So more a crushing injury than a grabbing injury.

Full marks to the observer who was heading for the Escape key as soon as the arm was returning to where the kid had placed his piece.

"Hit F10 to throw a punch"

Re: "also comes with an emergency button so it can help users if they fall"

It's amazing to me how little thought about actual use cases goes into so many of these devices.

Like 'Dementia Clocks' which invariably have small buttons tucked round the back so there's no easy way for a victim to terminate the "take your medicine" announcements. They aren't cheap, are quite expensive when including the additional functionality which is of no practical use.

Re: V or 5

Even though I know it means "five" I still pronounce it "vee" or no one knows which is being talked about.

And as V is the Roman numeral for 5 I don't see the problem with using "vee"; "RISC Five" is the RISC five chip labelled "RISC-5", "RISC Vee" is the RISC five chip labelled "RISC-V".

Re: Chinese Room

Both have been abused in attempts to justify what can otherwise not be justified

I would also add Osborne Effect - the mistaken belief that it will be almost impossible to sell current product once an improved version of the product has been announced, concluding that all new product must remain secret until launched or the business will be ruined.

While there will be some who would rather wait for the new than buy what's on offer that's far from the full story. But many seem to believe, because it happened to Osborne in very particular circumstances, it will happen to everyone, every time.

Re: It's going to crash!!!

Don't Buy Bitcoin. It's Going To Crash!!!

And, when it does; that's when one buys. Hoping it soars again while remembering to be smart enough to get out before the next crash arrives. And, as long as it doesn't crash too badly, it's still a profit.

It's a game I might play if I had money I didn't care about losing.

Re: Weather Forecasting

the best weather forecast for 'tomorrow' was 'same as today'

In terms of being more right than not it feels correct and what most people anticipate. The limitation of that is when there's a drastic change coming over the horizon or when one wants to look more than a couple of days ahead.

The other rule of thumb is; if it's been gloriously hot all week it will rain at the weekend. In the UK anyway.

"such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force"

Which means it may be armed force or could well be "meh" and nothing.

The limitations of Article 5 were revealed when it was invoked after 9-11, when some chose to storm into Afghanistan with guns blazing, others committed to far less.

Joining NATO and Article 5 applying doesn't guarantee someone else's army dropping in to help you out. Something Finland,Sweden and others may one day discover.

It's the ideal sort of thing for older laptops and desktops, or a Raspberry Pi and the like, where one wants to retain resources and not have them consumed by a behemoth distro. Where "less for you means more for me" allows the use of kit which wouldn't otherwise be suitable.

Re: it's law in the UK! But it's under review by the UK Gummin't!

My suspicion is that if the facts had been reported without all the speculation and opinions the whole partygate rubbish would have vanished.

Facts. Like...

"The event lasted for a number of hours. There was excessive alcohol consumption by some individuals. One individual was sick. There was a minor altercation between two other individuals" - Cabinet Office

Re: almost whoops

I remember going into Maplin and seeing A-A cables. No idea who they sold them to.

When cheap digital cameras first acquired USB, many had A sockets, so you needed an A plug to A plug cable. I recall some early MP3 players being the same.

I have quite a few. They are very useful for back-powering headless Raspberry Pi computers, avoiding the need to have a power connection to the side. You only need to solder a flying wire to bypass the USB current limiter to make it work.

there may well be a lot of companies that chose to use RISC-V, or are forced to by their governments, to avoid the risk of future sanctions.

Or, of course, forced into using RISC-V because of sanctions by other governments.

China, India and others will have seen the impact of sanctions being applied to Russia and will have asked themselves what would happen if they were in the same boat.

Nato expansionism has properly upset the cart. I am not sure if the inevitable consequences were unforeseen or unintended.

Re: Closed wallets caused by Covid-19 lockdowns?

Unless delivery doesn't work for even online orders because of China's strict lockdown rules there's something wrong here.

That does seem to be an issue in China where restricting travel and deliveries to a minimum is deemed essential to prevent spread, where delivery of essentials is prioritised over others.

I am not convinced people being confined in buildings by welding the doors shut was state policy but it is clear there were much tighter and harsher lockdown restrictions in effect than in the west, fewer exceptions to keep industry running.

Re: "If we are banned there, we must ban them here"

That seems like a perfectly reasonable attitude.

It does, but it's a race to the bottom, has us stooping to their level, legitimises the practice of blocking voices, surrenders the moral high ground, makes us no better than them.

The better alternative is to accept that it's an asymmetric battle and address it some other way. Slap some sort of 'propaganda warning' on it, fact check it etc.

The problem is of course, that what some label propaganda, often contains grains of inconvenient truth which are more conveniently addressed by cancelling the messenger.

Re: Offensive and poorlt thought through

When it came to dealing with users he was way out of his depth, abrupt, argumentative and sometimes down-right rude.

That's reasonable because all users are wankers and arseholes.

Or so it will seem to those who don't have the skills and talent to deal with users and are, as here, out of their depth.

I would have thought it went without saying that people have different aptitudes, will be perfect in some roles, worse than useless and completely unsuitable in others.

Putting people in the right shaped hole is the key to success. Forcing them into a wrong shaped hole is utterly disastrous for everyone. As this tale perfectly shows.

Re: Xojo

I really enjoyed my time doing VB6. I thought it was a lovely language for the mundane, and for causal programmers. It was easy to use and simple enough, even if the ultra-hardcore didn't like it, the elitists sneered at its "BASIC" naming and heritage.

REALbasic was what I moved to when VB6 was no more and because of its cross-platform capabilities. It was okay but expensive to licence and the developers seemed more focused on new features and releases than bug fixing. I can't speak for the Xojo incarnation having never used it but it's where I'd probably head if I wanted to relive the VB6 experience. I believe there's a free version for Raspberry Pi.

RAD Basic has probably missed its window of opportunity - its failed Kickstarter demonstrates that, and is doomed to go nowhere if not free to use, if it ever gets out of Alpha.

All the cool kids have moved on to Python and Qt, or are resigned to whatever-dot-Net.

I still have VB6 installed on my Windows 10 PC because I can't be bothered to port code which has worked for years to something else.

There was also their favourite step "..remove xxxx" - which often proved to have hidden complications.

I was once facing the need to repair something I thought would be simple enough until the relevant section opened with "first, remove the engine".

Thankfully contortion, sliced and bruised arms, a whole lot of swearing, and an inordinate amount of time spent, including on building Heath-Robinson contraptions, proved it not to be an absolute necessity.

More than half the bolts I removed never got refitted but it was fine until rust finally did her in.

Re: 'Peak Netflix'

made me return to buying DVDs

I never moved away from doing so, shunned streaming in favour of second-hand DVDs which can be as low as 20p each or £1 for a box-set, BluRay a little more.

The biggest problem is storage space and finding time to watch what I have accumulated.

Re: 'I have much trouble agreeing with'

So, wait, you're for or against free speech?

I would want to see the definition of Free Speech before I could decide which side I came down on.

Free Speech as in "anything goes", completely unrestrained and unrestricted - No, I am against that.

I have found very few people who genuinely support such an ultra-libertarian implementation of Free Speech. Most are hypocrites who simply want the right to say whatever they want to say while limiting the rights of others to have their say.

Allowing unrestrained and unrestricted Free Speech means being in favour of allowing terrorists and other scum to radicalise, to promote and incite murder, assassination, killing and genocide, to promote hatred and causes which would harm them, others, their families, tribe, country or lifestyle.

I am not in favour of that. I believe there should be some restrictions and they should apply to all.

Re: Fox - Hen house: what can go wrong?

Of all stupid arguments, this must be the absolute dumbest.

Oh no siree. You obviously haven't heard the claim that Biden contracted the Chinese through Fauci to get them to inflict Covid on the world so Trump would lose the election.

Seriously. Is there an El Reg unit for degree of insanity?

Re: This post has been deleted by a moderator

I can understand why it was, but the author did have a legitimate starting point; "How do you know it was unprovoked??".

I am with those who see Nato reneging on their promises not to advance to the east, not to put their weapons and troops up against Russia's borders, as much a provocation to Russia as the Cuban Missile Crisis was to America. But these days that has one quickly labelled as a traitor and enemy of the people, even if one does not support what Putin has done.

I have never witnessed such a Cancel Culture campaign, heard so much anti-Russia rhetoric, seen so much demonisation and propaganda, "evidence" which even those presenting it admit is only "belief".

It is "with or against us" at a level I have never experienced in my lifetime. It has even turned Germany and the EU against Russia, has China undecided.

It seems too me to be the inevitable culmination of where things have been going in recent years, the shift to tribalism, division and polarisation. Welcome to the world we have created.

Re: Not a "bug"

Tesla not only think they're above the law, they also seem to think they can rewrite the law.

But we have to accept that not everyone does come to a complete stop at stop signs if they think it is safe to continue without actually stopping.

The question is whether the law allows that, in some states if not others?

If it does then Tesla were allowing something which is allowed, otherwise they were allowing something which isn't.

If it's not allowed but Tesla believed it was, that isn't "rewriting the law"; it's being wrong. Just as drivers who don't stop at stops signs when they are meant to would be.

Yup, that's democracy. The least harmful political system.

So we are told but I am not entirely convinced. Though it could be that the democracy we are told we have is no such thing.

There's growing recognition that a low-carb diet helps with weightloss and T2 diabetes management.

Lowering carbs does seem to be key and worked for me.

And exercise. Grab an MP3 player, a couple of kg dumbells, and dance like no one's watching.

I shrug off any feelings of twattishness by knowing how much healthier I am.

Re: That's obviously got no possibility for mis-use then....

That's better phrased than "the race to the bottom continues" as I was going to write.

Re: Is this an EU or Europe thing ?

I suspect most Brexiters would be fine joining an EU CPU initiative. It's not exactly a 'red flag' hot topic that anyone is likely to have heard drunks in Wetherspoons uttering "dey tooook oour silicons!"

All covered by "Bloody EU".

It's a spectrum - there are a few "I didn't like how it was going but I'm happy to trade with them, work with them" but a whole lot more with an "It's evil! We must have nothing to do with them" perspective.

There's no value in reasoning with those who believe Farage ought to be, not just knighted, but made a saint, that the UK's future is as the 51st State with a Trumpian lording over us.

The real problem is we have a government which seems beholden to such voters, is too afraid to upset them lest they lose power.